Nathan Deal

John Nathan Deal (25 August 1942-) was Governor of Georgia (R) from 10 January 2011, succeeding Sonny Perdue.

Biography
John Nathan Deal was born in Millen, Georgia in 1942, and he served in the US Army from 1966 to 1968. He spent twenty-three years as a lawyer and as a superior court judge, and he was elected to the State Senate in 1980 as a conservative southern Democrat. In 1990, he became President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, and he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1993, representing the 9th district after defeating Ed Jenkins. In 1995, Deal switched his allegiance to the Republican Party, serving as a Republican congressman until 2003, when he was succeeded by Charlie Norwood; he became the representative for the 10th district, and he was succeeded by Norwood in 2007, when he returned to the 9th district as congressman. In 2010, he resigned from the US Congress after a monetary scandal, but he won the gubernatorial election. Governor Deal incresed the state's power to combat illegal immigration, enacted criminal justice reforms, signed the "Guns Everywhere" Law (House Bill 60), and voted to halt the entry of Syrian refugees into his state in 2015. However, he lacked the authority to issue the executive order against Syrians, and his bill was rescinded. Despite his many hardline conservative views, he voted against anti-LGBT laws and vetoed a "campus carry" bill that would permit college students to carry concealed guns at school.